REVIEW: SummerFest’s ‘Journey in Light’ concert a patchwork quilt
Christian Hertzog
July 31, 2023
Most chamber music concerts begin with musicians walking onstage to applause from the house.
Saturday’s SummerFest concert in La Jolla Music Society’s Baker-Baum Concert Hall started with lights dimming to blackout. From the dark stage, the softly bowed low open strings of a violin quietly emerged. Double stops slowly ascended, outlining a G major harmony.
The lights slowly came up on Blake Pouliot, strikingly playing the “Dawn” movement of Ysaÿe’s Sonata in G major for Solo Violin, Op. 27, no. 5.
So began a 90-minute “Journey In Light,” festival director Inon Barnatan’s playlist of 12 compositions purporting to show changing moods from dawn to midnight.
The traversal of a complete day and night is a useful frame for literature and drama. But for instrumental music, that most abstract of all arts, is it possible to capture that passage?
For maximum effect, a composition (or playlist of different works) might explore the feelings of waking up, getting started in the morning, hitting your stride in the afternoon, perhaps a dip in energy, pushing through that to nightfall with a relaxing dinner or an exciting party, finally settling down and falling asleep.
“Journey In Light” seemed content to merely use pieces because they referenced “morning,” “afternoon” or “nocturne” in their titles. Instead of an organic whole, the program was more of a musical sampler.
There were rarities to savor such as “Morning” by Mélanie Bonis, a piano trio steeped in late French Romanticism; Turina’s “Evening Twilight” from “Scenes of Andalusia,” a Spanish-tinged vehicle for solo viola (warmly played by Masumi Per Rostad), accompanied by piano and string quartet; and the Gallic gloom of Chausson’s “Chanson pérpetuelle,” heard in its version for voice and piano quintet.
Chausson was graced by the luminous, lustrous mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, heard also in the concluding arrangement of Richard Strauss’ “Morgen!” (Tomorrow). Barnatan’s tenure as SummerFest director has showcased many reductions of orchestral music. In Strauss’ case, the horn parts were dropped; I missed those burnished chords suddenly appearing towards the end of the song, with that solo horn joining the very last string ensemble chord.
The reduction of Haydn’s Finale from Symphony No. 7 in C major dropped horns, bassoons, and oboes; the violin solos had less impact because the string section was reduced, but the perky flute part remained, enchantingly rendered by Rose Lombardo. Lombardo also sensuously performed the flute solos from Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” but the chamber ensemble reduction for 13 players neutered this orchestral masterpiece.
The uncredited arrangement of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” was a happier affair, imbuing this beloved piano work with instrumental color and additional resonance. The appearance of recent music by Guillaume Connesson (“Toccata-Nocturne for Flute and Cello”) and George Crumb (“Midnight Transformation” from “Eine Kleine Mitternacht Musik”) was welcome. Lombardo and cellist Oliver Herbert (who appeared in nearly every work) brought Connesson’s sputtering polyrhythms to life. Roman Rabinovich was fluent in Crumb’s inside-the-piano techniques, yet the lack of amplification lost some of the more delicate effects.
Baker-Baum Concert Hall is a versatile space for theatrical presentations, and here the subtle shifts in lighting underscored the progression from day to evening. The efficiency of the staging changes kept the program from dragging.
The concert could have ended after Strauss’ “Morgen!,” but following intermission, violinists Erin Keefe and Steven Copes, violists Rebecca Albers and Maiya Papach, and cellist Oliver Herbert gave a spirited performance of Mozart’s String Quintet in C Minor, K. 406. The unity of a single composer’s voice over multiple movements was a pleasant contrast to the musical patchwork of the first half.
Hertzog is a freelance writer.